Best Book by a Local Author

A New Religion in Mecca: Memoir of a Renegade Brewery in St. Louis

If Tom Schlafly's autobiography will teach you anything, it's that there's always room for one more  even if your competition is Goliath. A New Religion in Mecca: Memoir of a Renegade Brewery in St. Louis retraces his business venture in the shadow of Anheuser-Busch as the president of The Saint Louis Brewing Company (a.k.a. Schlafly Beer). The brewpub opened in late 1991, and by 1997 it was on tap inside enemy lines at Busch Stadium. Writes Schlafly of this landmark feat: "We hadn't just started a new religion in Mecca. Now we were proselytizing in the Grand Mosque." His candid recount of the microbrewery is fun and refreshing  and reminds you that being a lawyer (Schlafly is a '77 grad of Georgetown Law) isn't necessarily a bad thing.